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Pirii Hife 

poofc of Antarctic Ptrbs 














All things bright and beautiful. 

All creatures great and small 
All things wise and wonderful. 

The Lord God made them all. 

— Mrs. C. E. Alexander. 




























They Looked a Very Bold and Imposing Company 
From Story to Catch Sheathbill 
































Xr«z^* 

iflANii 



BIRD ! LIFE: 


t 'f HE BOOK OF AKTA^5 tTg~BTrP5 ~ 
jBy f\oy 'JC. y5h<&Jl 

AUTHOR OF NORTHLAND Bl R DL I F E, 
DINNER THAT WAS ALWAYS THERE, 
LITTLE BOY FRANCE, ETC. 



illustrated by 

Cobb X.yS>fiinn 


PUBLISHERS' __ 

r JLL5T b^CfrtT^ ODKS^ 
ALBERT WHITMAN COMPANY 

CHICAGfO, u.£.A. 









THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 

Copyright, 1924, by Albert Whitman & Co., Chicago, U. S. A. 



0 


S^ rv 

5 ^ 


ROY J. SNELL’S 
OTHER TITLES 

THE DINNER THAT WAS 
ALWAYS THERE 
LITTLE BOY FRANCE 
THE LITTLE RED 
AUTO PONY 



\ r . 


A JUST RIGHT BOOK 

PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A. 


sf el 




C1A801736 




















CONTENTS 



There’s Nothing the Penguin Folks Like Better Than Swimming 


Page 


STORMY PETREL . 7 

STORMY PETREL LOST. 14 

STORMY AT THE BIG CANAL. 18 

GOING SOUTH INTO THE COLI). 26 

HUSKIE, AN OLD FRIEND. 33 

PENGUIN VILLAGE. 43 

THE SNOW STORM. 52 

ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS. 60 

THE POLICEWOMAN . 68 

SHEATHBILL, THE ROBBER. 76 

TO CATCH SHEATHBILL. 85 

INTO THE ROBBER’S DEN. 91 

THE STRANGE MOTHERS. 98 

THE SEA LEOPARD.105 

OLD GIANT WHALE.112 

SAFE AT HOME.118 

TO MIGRATE HOME. 123 


5 























“Watch Your Step” Shouted Stormy 
From Story Old Giant W hale 


6 









































































‘fli?" 

STRANoC 

BIRD ) Lire 

BOOK OF ANTARCTIC BIRDS 


STORMY PETREL 

STORMY PETREL stood 
first on one foot, then on the 
other. He cocked his head 
on one side, the better to 
catch the howl of the wind, 
then closed one eye and 
squinted away at the whirling snow which swept 
by the door step to his cavern in the sea’s rocky 
cliff. Stormy Petrel has been called the tramp 
among the birds of the sea. Whether he would 
answer to the name I cannot tell. This much he 
would admit, and I don’t doubt he’d be a bit 



7 


8 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


proud of it—that is, he is a wanderer. Just at this 
moment he was going dreamily over the jour¬ 
neys he had taken across the wild and restless 
sea. The cold and rock-bound coast of Green¬ 
land, the stormy English channel, the balmy 
southern isles—all these and many more passed 
before his vision. O yes, Stormy was a trav¬ 
eler; and tramp or no tramp, he wasn’t such a 
bad bird, after all. He never robbed the homes 
of his comrades. Oh, he might take a bite to 
eat now and then, but that was customary, you 
know. Stormy never looked into windows at 
night or jumped out from bushes to frighten 
little children, and he never prowled about 
homes when the men folks were gone, so you 
may well guess he was a very model sort of 
tramp, if tramp he were at all. 

But Stormy was troubled just this moment. 
Here he was, far, far to the north in Alaska. 
Here he had camped during the short summer, 




STORMY PETREL 


9 



I’ll Just Oil Up My Wings and Sail Away 


and a very delightful time he had made of it, 
too. For two long months there had been no 
nights at all, and even when the sun did begin 
to set it stayed down only a very short time, 
and only served to make the sunlight and twi¬ 
light the more delightful. But now, so very 
early, it seemed to Stormy, here was a snow¬ 
storm whirling before his door, and the wind 
singing wild songs of winter and famine! 

“I’ll just oil up and sail away the moment 
it stops,” he said to himself, beginning at once 
to prepare for his departure. 







10 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


“I’ll stop on my way south at Happy 
Island. I think some of my old friends, 
Specks, the Eider Duck, or Little Baby Laugh¬ 
ing Loon, or Mrs. Gray Goose will be there, 
and if they are I shall be certain of a fine din¬ 
ner of shrimp and clam chowder. How good 
some of that chowder would taste right at this 
moment!” 

But when Stormy arrived at the island a 
few days later he found not a creature there to 
greet him. All the beds in all the homes were 
mussed and some of them were all damp from 
the spray that had blown in from the terrible 
storm. The doors of the Puffin homes were 
blocked with snow, and there was not a scrap 
of anything left to eat. Stormy suspected Little 
White Fox and the long-nosed Mice children 
of having looted the village when the people 
had gone away. In this being alone, Stormy felt 
the cold wind blow through his thin jacket all 




STORMY PETREL 


11 



He Found Not a Person There To Greet Him 


the more keenly for the lack of friends and 
food. It’s all very well to be a wanderer when 
the sun is shining and when you are among 
people, but when you are on a desert island 
and the wind is howling mournfully about you, 
it is very different. Very different, indeed! 

“Next year I’ll settle down somewhere,” 
said Stormy to himself, “and I’ll stop this rov¬ 
ing life. If I can find a real bird town some¬ 
where and find steady work of some kind, I 
will stay there.” 




12 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


But just then he spied something down on 
the beach which warmed his heart. He could 
look right into Big White Bear’s kitchen, and 
as usual there was a great quantity of cold meat 
waiting for the next fellow who came along. 
The next fellow this time was Stormy Petrel, 
and when he had eaten his fill he didn’t feel 
nearly so lonesome nor half so cold. And 
when, three days later, as he wheeled along 
before a wild whirling storm and was passing 
through the straits which separate the Old 
World from the New, he sighted a whaling 
schooner laden with rich ivory, skins, and tons 
and tons of whale-bone, making its way to the 
southward. 

He made haste to ascend and catch his 
breath in the lee of the sheltering whaler. 
Right then he forgot all about his fine plans, 
for if there is anything a member of the wan¬ 
dering Petrel tribe likes better than any other, 
it is to sail along day after day, in the wake of 
some great steamer or schooner. Every day the 




STORMY PETREL 


13 



He Sighted a Whaling Schooner 


cooks throw out quantities and quantities of 
choice morsels, and if these are not enough, 
there are always the sailors who love the little 
wanderers and care for them very well. “For,” 
they say among themselves, “if Mother Carey’s 
chickens are with us we must have a safe 
voyage, else what would come of the dame’s 
precious chicks?” The sailors call the wan¬ 
derers “Mother Carey’s chickens,” which I am 
sure you will agree is an odd name for a sea 
tramp, but then sailors are a jolly strange 
crowd anyway. 








STORMY PETREL LOST 



HERE am I?” said Stormy, 
stretching himself, and at last 
rubbing one eye open to look 
about him. All about him 
was lumber. The smell of it 


was pleasing. He had a mind to turn over and 
take another little nap. 

“Must have slept late,” he thought to him¬ 
self as he blinked at the sun high in the 
heavens. He tried to think what had hap¬ 
pened the night before. He had reached a fine 
southern port, with the whaling schooner, and 
immediately out in the bay he had come upon 
some of his friends from the north land. There 
was Tommie Specks, the Eider Duck—Tom¬ 
mie had grown to be quite a gay fellow—and 


14 


STORMY PETREL LOST 


IS 



Eider Duck 


there was a great number of the Puffin folks 
and some of the Gray Goose family. A gay 
party it must have been, to be sure. And a 
gay time they had of it, he was certain. But 
somehow, he seemed to remember faintly that 
the party was ended by a fight, and he felt 
rather certain that he had been fighting him¬ 
self. When he felt of his head he was very 
sure of it, but who the other fellow had been 
he had no notion at all. 

“How that sun does jump about!” he ex- 






16 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


claimed, suddenly startled. Leaping to his 
feet, he walked a bit unsteadily to the end of 
the planks he had been sleeping on. He looked 
right down into a sea of tumbling waves! 

“Well!” He scratched his head. “Well! 
Shanghaied!” And shanghaied it was. (Shang¬ 
haied is a sailor’s way of saying “carried out to 
sea against one’s own wishes.”) The day be¬ 
fore he had looked over all the crafts in the 
harbor and tried to choose between a splendid 
coastwise schooner and a great liner bound for 
the Orient, and here he was on board a poor, 
rough lumber schooner bound for some un¬ 
known place. He had gone to sleep on board 
her and she had sailed out to sea in the night. 

“Serves me right enough,” he reflected. 
“I have no business being out late nights and 
getting lost. O well, anyway the sailors on 




STORMY PETREL LOST 


17 


these rough craft are a kind enough lot, and it 
might be a great deal worse.” At this he 
stretched out his stiffened wings and went soar¬ 
ing away to find his breakfast in the wake of 
the ship, and to announce to the sailors that he 
had been a stowaway in their rough schooner. 
And right gladly he was received, you may 
be sure. 










STORMY AT THE BIG CANAL 



ITORM Y looked lost and very 
much alone in the world. 
And indeed he was alone in 
a strange land. He wouldn’t 
have minded that so much, 
but to add to all this it was hot, burning hot! 
His wings drooped pitifully as he walked along 
the baking sand of the beach. 

“I wonder where it could have gone to?” 
he said to himself. He was thinking of the 
lumber schooner which he had followed for 
days and weeks and perhaps for a month. He 
could keep no track of time. He only knew 
that it was time the weather was growing cool 
in all the lauds he had visited before, but that 
here it had been growing warmer and warmer 


18 





His Wings Drooped As He Walked Along the Baking Sand of the Beach 


19 


20 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


every day he journeyed south, and now at last 
his ship had put in at a port, and though he 
had watched the port carefully, the ship had 
disappeared in the night, and he was unable to 
tell where it had gone. 

“Those were good sailors, and I always 
had plenty to eat. I am sorry I missed them,” 
he said thoughtfully to himself. “Have they 
gone out of the harbor into the open sea? 
Where could they have gone?” 

The worst part of it was that he had found 
no one to ask about it. So many folks down 
here spoke strange tongues! Almost all of 
them did, in fact, and Stormy could see as he 
watched them that half the time they could not 
understand even one another. 

But just as he was walking down the beach 
trying to solve these new life problems he heard 
someone shouting in a language he understood. 
It was a brownish dog who had come down to 




STORMY AT THE BIG CANAL_21 



“Hello,” Said the Dog 


the beach to hunt for dead fish washed in by 
the waves. Whether he was attempting to sing, 
or was calling to a companion Stormy could 
not tell, and did not care, for at last here was 
someone of whom he could ask questions about 
this strange land. 

“Hello,” said the dog, as Stormy came 
drooping up. He recognized in Stormy an old 
friend. 

“Hello,” said Stormy, standing on one 












22 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


foot, and trying to assume a natural air in spite 
of the heat. “What are you doing down here?” 

“My master brought me down. He’s look¬ 
ing after some things in connection with the 
big canal.” 

“Oh!” said Stormy, trying hard to make 
the impression that he knew all about the canal, 
which he didn’t. 

“But what are you doing down here?” 
asked the dog. 

“I came down as guest on a lumber 
schooner. Came ashore to find something to 
eat and lost her. I wonder where she could 
have gone to?” 

“Probably through the big canal,” said the 
dog, grinning, for he knew at once that Stormy 
didn’t know a thing about the canal, or he 
would have known that the lumber schooner 
would be going that way, as all lumber 
schooners did <fiese days. 




STORMY AT THE BIG CANAL 


23 


Well, Stormy had to admit at last that he 
was very ignorant of this strange land, and 
was glad enough to have the dog tell him all 
about the warm canal zone and the great 
Panama Canal, through which the greatest 
ships of all the earth could pass from one ocean 
to the other. But the dog could tell Stormy 
nothing of the land which lay still to the south¬ 
ward. 

“I don’t think I should care to take a trip 
through the canal,” said Stormy. “I have heard 
that some of the bird folks of the land are very 
dangerous fellows, and would rather destroy and 
eat you than to look at you—Old Baldy, the 
eagle, and Grey Coat, the hawk, and such as 
they.” 

Stormy took a friendly farewell of this old 
acquaintance, who went on hunting dead fish 
while Stormy went out on the ocean where it 
was cooler to think things out. Here he was 




24 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


in a warm, warm country, and nearly all the 
ships were going right through the land where 
he did not care to follow. His friends on the 
lumber schooner were far away on some other 
waters by this time, so he need never hope to 
see them again. 

What was he to do? Should he join 
some ship coming out of the canal and go¬ 
ing back to the land from which he came? 
Should he go still farther south? He was quite 
sure that he could not endure a much warmer 
country than this. If it grew warmer and 
warmer as he went on southward he was quite 
sure he would perish. But somehow, he felt 
that the sailors could not stand more heat than 
he could, which was right. 

He didn’t know just what would happen, 
but anyway he felt that there would be a change 
of some sort if he kept going south, and he was 
very, very eager to discover what that strange 




STORMY AT THE BIG CANAL 


25 



He Wheeled High in the Air, Circled About and Lighted on Its Lee 


change could be, and he was also very eager, as 
every wanderer is, to see some new lands and 
have some new adventures. So when he saw a 
little steamer pull out of the harbor and turn to 
the southward, he wheeled high in air, circled 
about, and lighted on its lee. He was at once 
greeted with cheers from the strange sailors, and 
thus began his further trip into the land where 
the days grew warmer and warmer. 






































GOING SOUTH INTO THE COLD 



“1\ yTY!” said Stormy to himself, as he 
TV-L dropped to the water and fanned him¬ 
self with his wings, “If this keeps up another 
week I shall surely perish.” 

They had been traveling steadily south¬ 
ward, for days and days, and always it had 
been growing warmer. But just at that 
moment he noticed the sailors acting very 
strangely on deck. They seemed to be doing 
things to the new men and at last one of them 
looked out at the open sea and shouted, “See! 
There it is! There it is! The Equator! The 
Equator!” 


26 

























































GOING SOUTH INTO THE COLD 


27 


Stormy looked and looked and looked, but 
he could see nothing but little black waves such 
as there were everywhere, and bits of drifting sea 
plants which were not uncommon at all. “I 
wonder what they were talking about,” he said 
to himself as he spread his wings and prepared 
to continue his journey. 

Three days later Stormy lifted his face to 
a breeze that was coming from the south. “I 
do believe it really feels cool!” he exclaimed. 
“A cool breeze from the south!” 

A week later he was very, very sure the 
weather was becoming much cooler and they 
were still journeying southward. The strang¬ 
est part of all was that they were now at that 
time of year when, in the lands he had visited 
before, it should be growing warmer and 
warmer toward the hot summer time, yet here 
they were every day going on and on into 
cooler and cooler climes. He couldn’t figure it 




28 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


out, but it was so very delightful after the great 
heat he had endured that he just drifted happily 
on the waves or skimmed along in the vessel’s 
lee, and refused to puzzle much about it. 

On and on they traveled, day after day. 
Sometimes his ship turned back to the north, 
but at such times he waited for another little 
steamer which was going south. Always he 
found a welcome from the strange sailors, 
though he could not understand a word of the 
strange tongue which most of them spoke. 

“Rock me to sleep, mother, 

I’m going round the Horn.” 

Stormy heard a stray English sailor singing it 
as the sun went down one night. He wondered 
what it meant, that song of the sailor. He was 
going to find out, but not right away. 

He went to sleep that night safe on the 
waves. The wind was contrary to the sailing 
vessel he was following, and he felt quite sure 




GOING SOUTH INTO THE COLD 29 



On and On They Traveled, Day After Day 


he would have no trouble in finding it in the 
morning. 

But when morning came, a strange thing 
had happened. The ship had vanished! Strain 
his eyes as he might, and look this way or that, 
he could not discover it, and there was not the 
least fog on the sea at that! 

Hastily he spread his wings and flew 
swiftly southward, “For,” he said to himself, 
“there has been no port in sight and they must 
have gone south.” 

But when he had sailed on and on to the 
southward for hours and hours, and had not 


















30 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


sighted them he gave up and settled down on 
the water, a very lonely old traveler in the midst 
of a dark, dark, old ocean which now every 
day was growing colder and colder till Stormy 
found it difficult, indeed, to keep his toes warm. 

“And the strangest part of it all is,” he 
said to himself, “that it is June and should be 
warm even in the far, far northland.” 

But his usual strong heart gave him cour¬ 
age, and he felt sure that should he continue 
southward things would be different. He 
would come to some new land, and find some 
new ship to follow. 

And at last he did come to a land. But 
such a strange land as it was! Cold and bleak 
and barren! Not a soul in sight, and no ships! 
Just such a land as Arctic region and Alaska. 

“I must have come back to the land of 
Big White Bear, Little White Fox, Little Miss 
Snow Bunting, and the rest,” Stormy said to 
himself, as he lighted on a pinnacle of ice to 
look about. “But where can they all be? I do 




But Such a Land As It Was—Cold and Bleak and Bare 

31 













































































































32 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


not so much as see a trace of them anywhere. 
There are some tracks right over there, but they 
do not look like the tracks of anyone I have 
ever seen. I’ll just go over and look at them.” 

Stormy did go over, and just as he was 
bending over to examine them very, very care¬ 
fully, he heard a strange voice, and looking up, 
beheld a great company of large birds walking 
solemnly toward him. They were all dressed 
in long robes and caps like monks, and were 
quite as silent. They looked a great deal like 
the Puffin folks. But they were large! Why 
some of them must have been four feet tall! 

Stormy rubbed his eyes and stared. “I 
must have got some sea water down my throat. 
It is making me see things!” he said, rubbing 
his eyes again and again. But every time he 
looked, the strange procession was still there 
and coming closer and closer. 

“I might as well start out to meet them and 
see what will happen,” said Stormy to himself, 
and started toward them. 




HUSKIE, AN OLD FRIEND 



ITH slow steps and won¬ 
dering mind, Stormy ap¬ 
proached the great host of 
strangers. “How strangely 
big they are!” he thought to 
FP himself, “Why! some of 
them are more than half as tall as a man. And 
how dignified they look!” 


But he was far too curious about this 
strange land to allow either fear or wonder to 
keep him back and beside he was getting to 
feel lonesome as everyone must who is in a 
strange land where he does not know a single 
person, so he tramped forward to meet the 
strangers and was soon standing face to face 
with the tallest and gravest of them all. Behind 
the leader stood the great host in respectful 
silence, looking for all the world like a great 


33 


34 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



Soon They Were Marching Out in An Orderly Array to Meet a New Stranger 


choir in some lofty cathedral, for it seemed to 
appear that every one of them wore a long black 
robe and a light gown beneath which showed 
where the dark folds fell back. 

Just as the tall, dignified stranger came 
close to Stormy, who, odd little tramp that he 
was, did not know what was going to happen, 
the stranger made a dignified bow, then he 
made three more dignified bows, then he began 
to make a speech. It turned out to be a very 
long speech indeed, but whether it was a ser¬ 
mon on the evils of being a tramp or just a 
plain speech of welcome Stormy will never 





HUSKIE AN OLD FRIEND 


35 



The Stranger Made a Dignified Bow 


know, for he understood never a word of this 
strange language. One word he heard over and 
over again and as we now know, he was a very 
bright fellow. When the speech was quite fin¬ 
ished he screamed the word, “Penguin” at the 
top .of his voice. And all the host screamed 
their delight. He had guessed their names, for 
these, ineed, were the Penguin folks. After 
that Stormy repeated his own name, “Petrel, 
Petrel,” many times to them and they repeated 
it after him, “Petrel, Petrel,” and then of course 







36 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


they all felt very well acquainted indeed, for did 
they not know one another’s names? Then 
nothing would do but Stormy must go home 
with them for lunch. And a splendid feast it 
was, though Stormy could not have named one 
of the dishes set before him. 

Next morning just as he had finished eat¬ 
ing his breakfast with his host, the greatest 
Penguin, who looked very much like some 
mighty ruler and was in fact a very Emperor 
Penguin, Stormy saw his host rise suddenly and 
go out as if to look after some urgent business. 
He followed, and found the whole village 
assembled as when he had appeared among 
them. Soon they were marching out in orderly 
array to meet some new visitor. Stormy was so 
short that he could see nothing among these 
folks about four-foot high. But when they 
came to a stand-still he crowded out from 
among the throng, and in just another moment 
heard a voice say to him: 




HUSKIE AN OLD FRIEND 


37 


“Hello! hello!” in perfectly good English. 

“How are you!” exclaimed Stormy, over¬ 
joyed to meet an old friend. It was none other 
than Huskie, the Malamute dog, whom he had 
known in Alaska some years before. Huskie 
seemed to be grinning from ear to ear. But the 
Penguin folks, not understanding what had been 
said, were as solemn as owls. And very soon 
the Emperor began his long speech, of which 
Huskie understood very little, but to which he 
listened very attentively out of respect, no 
doubt, for the customs of the country. When 
this ceremony was finished, the company broke 
up into little groups and Stormy edged his way 
over toward Huskie. He was sure now that 
this was Alaska, for if it were not how could 
Huskie get here since he could not fly? There 
were many, many questions he wanted to ask 
Huskie about his strange adventures. 




38 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


“Now,” said Stormy, after he had told all 
his strange experiences, “I want to ask you 
some questions.” 

“Go ahead. Ask as many as you like,” 
said Huskie, grinning from ear to ear. “I shall 
be glad to answer all of them.” 

“What I want to know, in the first place,” 
said Stormy, standing on one foot and scratch¬ 
ing his right shin with the toe of his left foot, 
“is, how could I get north by going south?” 

Huskie wanted to laugh right out loud at 
this, but he didn’t. So he politely said, “Why, 
you didn’t. You’re not north now, you’re 
south.” 

“South!” exclaimed Stormy, more puzzled 
than ever. “Isn’t this Alaska? But if it is, 
where is White Bear, where’s Little White Fox, 
where’s Tusks, the walrus, and Tdariuk, the 
reindeer, where’s all the rest of the folks I used 
to know?” Stormy had grown quite excited, 





Like,” Said Huskie 


“Ask As Many As You 

























40 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


and was staring at Huskie as if he were likely 
at any moment to jump up and pinch his nose. 

“Do not ask your questions so fast,” said 
Huskie, “and I will explain. This isn’t Alaska, 
and none of the people you speak of have ever 
lived here. This is almost a new world alto¬ 
gether. When you knocked at Mrs. Eider 
Duck’s door and found her not at home you 
were very near the Arctic Circle. Now you 
are very near the Antarctic Circle, and those 
two circles are thousands and thousands of 
miles apart, and though they run round the 
earth for ten thousand years they’ll never be 
one foot nearer together anyway, that’s what 
my master, the geography man, says, and he 
ought to know, for he spends all his time 
making strange drawings on paper to help 
small children with when they go to school.” 

“Oh-h!” Stormy took a long breath, and 
tried to get the world turned right side up in 




HUSKIE AN OLD FRIEND 


41 


his own mind. “A cold, cold country and no 
White Bear, no Tusks, the walrus, no Little 
White Fox, no Tdariuk, the reindeer! What a 
strange land and how lonesome it must be!” 

“Oh, no, you’re wrong,” said Huskie, 
seeming to read what was in Stormy’s mind. 
“It’s not so bad. There are many people living 
here, especially in the summer time. And the 
most interesting people in the world are these 
same Penguin people you have just been stay¬ 
ing with. But you must come right home with 
me. My master will be more than glad to see 
anyone from his home town. He brought me 
down here to keep him company and to show 
him about in this cold land, but I sometimes 
think he even grows tired of me in these long, 
long nights. But never mind, by the first of 
October it will be very fine and warm indeed, 
and by Christmas it will be splendid summer 




42 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


time,” he added with a merry wink, seeing how 
confusing all these strange conditions were to 
poor Stormy who had always lived in the 
northern hemisphere. 

Huskie’s master was a tall, strong, white 
man, a scientist and an explorer. He was glad 
to see Stormy, but instead of making him a 
long speech as the Penguin people had done, 
he threw him a choice bit of blubber, which 
pleased Stormy very much better than the 
speech. 

When Stormy had had a good night’s sleep 
he felt quite ready for any new adventure and 
quite sure he would like this country very well, 
if ever he had his difficult geography lesson 
learned. 

“Huskie says these Penguin folks are the 
most interesting people in the world,” he said 
to himself, “and I shouldn’t wonder a bit if he 
was right.” 




PENGUIN VILLAGE 



‘GREAT red beam of sun¬ 
shine was slowly lifting the 
sun out of a dark blue pool of 
ocean. Stormy Petrel, our 
jolly tramp of the sea, 
watched it till it sank slowly 
into the sea and left the sun to roll by itself along 
the blue waters. Stormy had long since learned 
his geography lesson of the South Polar Sea, and 
had learned much of the language of Penguin 
land as well, and now he was going with these 
staid and solemn folks to their summer home 


where, they had assured him, they would build 
real houses of stone, lay out streets, and live 


for all the world like humans. 

- The days had grown longer, water had ap¬ 
peared here and there on the ice floes. Stormy 


43 



44 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


knew it was coming spring, and he was anxious 
to be away. Already his friends, Huskie the 
malamute dog, and the Geography man, had 
packed up their camp and gone to the north¬ 
ward. Stormy had liked his Penguin friends 
so well that he stayed behind, but now he was 
glad to be on the move. He took his place in 
line, and away they marched single file, making 
quite a solid roadway as they traveled. Stormy 
had no trouble in keeping up the gait walking 
till his companions came to a steep hill. Once 
at the top they lay flat down on their stomachs, 
and with their heavy robes for sleds, went to¬ 
bogganing to the bottom in a hurry. This left 
Stormy far behind, but he was not long in start¬ 
ing to fly, and soon he was airshipping along far 
over their heads, and did not stop till he was at 
the top of the next hill, from which he could 
watch their slow-winding progress, which re¬ 
minded him of nothing half so much as the gold 
seekers of his own Alaska as they made their 
way to some new diggings. 




PENGUIN VILLAGE 


45 


“I am going to live in a real feathered folks 
town,” Stormy exclaimed joyously, as he 
watched the long line of people toiling up the 
hill, “a real town, with streets and houses and 
all the home comforts. If I had just been 
brought up in a place like that, perhaps I should 
not have become a tramp. But perhaps it was 
so lonesome way out in the country that I just 
couldn’t like it. But now, I hope I can give 
up my wanderings and settle down with these 
sensible, quiet people in their real town.” 

“It must be grand to live in a real town,” he 
repeated to Emperor Penguin, as he reached 
the crest of the hill before his companions. 

Emperor just looked at Stormy and said 
nothing. Someway Stormy couldn’t help think¬ 
ing there was a rather odd look in his eyes as 
he flopped down on his stomach and went to¬ 
bogganing down the hill toward that real town 
with streets and hundreds of houses. 

“We have now reached our place,” spoke 
the Emperor a few days later. He said it rather 




46 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



Went Tobogganing to the Bottom in a Hurry 


cheerfully, as he looked about over the great 
level stretch of land before them. 

“But where’s the town?” asked Stormy in 
surprise. 

“We will have to build that,” said the Em¬ 
peror, seizing a fair-sized stone and making 
for the level land. He established himself on 
the highest, dryest place, and soon all the Pen¬ 
guins had grouped themselves about him, all 
at short distances from one another, and were 






PENGUIN VILLAGE 


47 



Men and Women Alike Carrying Stones 


all busy bringing stones from the beach with 
which to mark their claim. Stormy was obliged 
to admit that when they were all in their places 
things began to look very much like the begin¬ 
ning of a town. 

Very soon indeed, there were streets well 
laid out and trampled down by the hurrying 
feet of the busy workers as they marched back 
and forth, male and female alike carrying 
stones for their new homes. They worked in¬ 
dustriously for some time, but by and by they 
seemed to be growing tired, and one by one 
they paused in the midst of the new houses to 




48 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



Rubbing One Another's Necks 


rest, and it was not any time at all before some 
of the younger people began billing and cooing 
and rubbing one another’s neck. Now, the 
walls were not built much higher than their 
boot tops, so when Stormy saw them he said 
to the Emperor, “Why don’t they wait till the 
houses are built all the way up?’’ 

“Oh, that’s about as high as we build our 
houses,” said the Emperor. “They are only 
summer houses anyway, and that is our young 
folks custom.” 

Stormy was surprised at this as he had 




PENGUIN VILLAGE 


49 


thought their town was to be a really grand 
place and with many rules, and here was his 
friend, the Emperor, telling him that there were 
very few rules for the young people and that 
all their houses were to be very little more than 
low walls after all. 

But just then Stormy saw something that 
made him look very sharply. He wasn’t quite 
sure, but it seemed to him that he saw Em¬ 
peror’s next door neighbor reach over and steal 
a stone from Emperor’s wall while he was look¬ 
ing the other way. He watched sharply out of 
the corner of his eye and sure enough he did! 
The other fellow reached right over and took 
a second stone from the Emperor’s wall. 

“Ha! Caught you at it!” exclaimed 
Stormy, more shocked than ever. 

The only answer he received was a bang 
across the side of his head that sent him spin¬ 
ning way over three lots into another fellow’s 
backyard. He was not wanted there either, so 
a lusty kick sent him right into the middle of 




50 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



He Saw Emperor’s Next Door Neighbor Reach Over and Steal a Stone 


another yard. Here he was seized quickly by 
the ear and sent spinning right out of town. 

“Well!” he exclaimed, when he had about 
recovered his breath to realize what had hap¬ 
pened. “Well! I don’t believe that I like living 
in a town near as well as I thought I should.” 
Just then he looked over where his friend Em¬ 
peror was standing and saw him steal a stone 
from one of his neighbors when his back was 
turned. 

“Well!” said Stormy, straightening up. 
“These people certainly have queer habits, and 






PENGUIN VILLAGE 


51 


I don’t like them for that. I’m going back 
to my old friend Huskie and the Geography 
man. I’ll come back later though, and see if 
I can’t get a boy to take with me on my travels. 
A boy’s good company for a tramp to have 
traveling with him,” and away he sailed back 
to Huskie and his master. 



Emperor 


Penguin 






THE SNOW STORM 


ENGUIN TOWN was not 
after all as bad as Stormy Pet¬ 
rel thought it. People who 
live in town very often get 
along well enough among 
themselves, but a stranger 
finds it rather hard to come in and join their 
group in peace, especially if he is a tramp and 
seems to desire to meddle with other folks’ habits. 
The Penguin people did steal without shame 
from one another, but then everyone expected 
it, and it had become a game of wits among 
them each spring. In due time things settled 
down to the natural life of a small town, and 
very soon there was a large egg in every home. 
Then Father and Mother Penguin took turns 
about holding the eggs on their knees to keep it 
up from the cold, damp earth. This, with the 



52 



THE SNOW STORM 


53 



Little Mannie Penguin 


hunting for food, kept them busy enough most 
all of the time. 

It was a very well-ordered town, then, into 
which Little Mannie Penguin, the Emperor’s 
son, wakened to one fine morning when the 
sun was shining all day and all night. He was 
dressed in a dark woolen suit and a black hood 
that covered everything but the tip of his nose 
and his two eyes. But his head was so very, 
very heavy that he was unable to straighten it 
up and look about him. He was so very sleepy 
that he soon closed his eyes and slept on his 
mother’s knees, half hidden by the folds of the 
great warm robe she wore. 




54 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



From time to time he was moved from his 
mother’s lap to his father’s without being wak¬ 
ened at all. At last, after many hours he awoke 
again feeling very hungry. His head did not 
seem so heavy. With a great effort he lifted his 
head and looked about him. Then he tried to 
say he was hungry. His proud parents under¬ 
stood, and he was at once fed by his mother 
while his father looked smilingly on. Very 
soon he was toddling about his little home, bid¬ 
ding fair to grow large and strong very rapidly 
and be just the kind of a boy old tramp, Stormy 
Petrel was looking for to take with him on his 




THE SNOW STORM 


55 



How the Wind Blows! 


wanderings, though this, I am sure you will 
agree, would not be the right thing at all for 
Mannie Penguin to do. 

“How the wind blows!” exclaimed Mother 
Penguin one day, “I do believe we are going to 
have a terrible blizzard.” She tucked her 
warm robe about Mannie till nothing could 
be seen of him but his nose and his sharp little 
eyes. She turned her back to the wind, but in 
spite of all that, she felt the keen bite of the 
wind through her robe and gown. 

“I think we are going to have a hard time 
of it,” she shivered, “but you just never mind. 








56 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


Your mother will not desert you. She bent 
down and tucked Mannie in a little closer and 
gave him a fond pat. Nobody in the world is 
more fond of her children than Mother Pen¬ 
guin is, and no one will fight longer and harder 
to protect them from danger. 

Wilder and wilder the wind blew. Soon 
sharp bits of snow went cutting through the 
air. 

“Whew,—whew,—” they sang, “Through, 
through, 

Straight from the mountains, too. 

Hide your heads little Penguin chicks 

Under the robes so nice and thick. 

Whew! Whew! Through! Through! 
We’re coming through!” 

Soon the air was so white that when Man¬ 
nie looked out he could not see to his neigh¬ 
bor’s door-step. Soon the snow was piling up 
all about them and already it was almost up to 
his nose. 




THE SNOW STORM 


57 


“We’ll be buried,” he whispered to his 
mother. 

“It will be well if we are,” said his mother. 
“If not we may freeze.” 

“But I will smother,” he whispered back. 

“Oh, no, said his mother, “I’ll reach down 
now and then and make a little passage for the 
air to reach you. Do not be afraid. You will 
be snug as anything down there all covered 
with the downy flakes.” Nevertheless, she did 
wrinkle her brow, for in these terrible bliz¬ 
zards no one could tell how deep the snow 
would bury them, and it might easily be that 
the snow would go over her head. Then she 
knew that she must choose between leaving her 
child or dying with him. 

Deeper and deeper the snow piled, louder 
and louder the wind howled. But only 
Mrs. Penguin heard it; Mannie’s ears were 
buried deep in the snow, but still right down 
to his face came a little passage which his brave 
mother, shiver as she might, kept open all the 




58 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


while. In Mother Penguin’s mind the question 
came over and over again, “Will it not stop 
soon? Will it not stop soon? Is it not growing 
less now?” But always the answer came from 
the wind; 

Whew! Whew! to you, to you! 

Wild wind and snow, too, 

Coming to cover you. 

Whew! Whew! Whew! 

Long ago, Little Mannie had fallen asleep 
in his snug bed. “Will he ever awake?” 
Mama Penguin whispered to herself. Just then 
the wind paused to listen, and I think it under- 
stoood, for slowly, slowly, when the snow was 
almost above the tip of Mother Penguin’s hood, 
it stopped altogether and the sky became so 
clear that Mother Penguin could see the sun 
shining through. 

They were safe, but it was a long and tire¬ 
some time before the snow melted away enough 
for Mannie to leave his once warm nest, which 
was now quite flooded by melting snow, and 




THE SNOW STORM 


59 


go with his mother to a dry, safe place where 
Father Penguin could bring them fpod. 

-They were very happy. But in their own 
happiness they could not help feeling sad, for 
where there had been a happy home next to 
their own, was one great drift of snow with 
never a sunken place in it, and that meant that 
some mother and her child had been buried 
there, or that the poor little fellow had been 
left to smother while his parents sought safety 
for themselves. Mother Penguin gave Mannie 
an extra loving tuck before she hid him away 
to dry, and gave three hoarse calls to her mate 
to come and bring them food. 





ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS 



HE sun had been shining 
warm for days. The snow 
had melted and run away 
down the streets in little 
rivers, and the town was dry 
and comfortable again. 
Mannie was very happy and well-fed in his 
home. He was looking dreamily off toward the 
dark blue sea when he heard strange voices, 
many, many of them just down the street a 
short distance. They were coming closer and 
closer. Soon there appeared hundreds and hun¬ 
dreds of short, squatty fellows, not nearly as 
large as Emperor Penguin and his town’s folks. 
Had Mannie been but a real man he might have 
imagined them as wearing wooden shoes and 
smoking long-stemmed pipes. Then, too, he 
might have seen them carrying strange, foreign 
looking bags and bundles, and the women with 


60 



ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS 


61 


shawls tied over their heads. But he wasn’t 
a real man, so he just thought of them as people 
very much like his own father and mother, only 
smaller and squattier than they. 

Very well behaved people they were. As 
they marched up the streets they did not move 
a pebble or molest a person. And well they 
might not, for if they had shown the least idle 
curiosity, not to say meddlesomeness, they 
would have had their ears soundly boxed by 
thrifty housewives, I am sure. Mannie watched 
them as they made their way to the higher land 
above their town. 

“I believe they are going to build up a 
town all of their own,” he said to himself, “or, 
perhaps, it is to be an addition to our town.” 
He liked to think of it that way, and felt very 
proud of himself and his family as he thought 
of this great addition to their village. “Why,” 
he thought, “if this keeps up, Penguin Town 
will soon be a city and we can put in electric 
lights, water works, and street cars.” 




62 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



Very Much Like His Father and Mother 


“Who are all those new folks?” he asked 
Father Penguin that evening. 

“They are the Adelie Penguin tribe,” said 
his father. “They are very good folks, but 
they always come late to their summer homes 
so they get the worst place to nest. However, 
they are very proper people, and we never ob¬ 
ject to their going through town to get rocks 
for building. 

^ ^ Jji 

“There’s three red stones on the wall near¬ 
est the ocean, three red ones and one white one 
on the side nearest the hill there are three white 







ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS 


63 


stones and one red one. I mustn’t forget that. 
Mannie turned and counted them again to 
make sure. These stones were in the wall of his 
own home. He was going out for a ramble. 
His father and mother had both gone out to fish 
in the sea. They had told him to remember 
about the stones, for if he didn’t he would 
never be able to find his way home. It was 
much easier to find his home than to find his 
parents, for they were dressed so very much 
like all the other folks of the village that occa¬ 
sionally there was a great squabble over whose 
children certain youngsters were anyway. 

He counted the stones once more, then 
went waddling away toward the upper edge of 
the village. He had taken little trips about his 
own part of the town, but to-day he felt sure 
he was going to make a visit to the south addi¬ 
tion which the Adelie Penguin folks were 
building. 

On and on he waddled, looking this way 
and that, and enjoying the splendid sunshine 






I 


Very Much Like the Other Folks 



' r> ~ 




•s-hiiv, 


v.wmWJZ?/, 


64 






























































ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS 


65 


until he came to the outer edge of his own vil¬ 
lage, and at last, right into the Adelie Addition. 
He found the people busy at work building 
their homes. It was a long journey down to 
the beach, and they were all tired and fussed 
up as each come panting back bearing a stone 
in his beak. 

“Lot’s of work, isn’t it?” said Mannie to 
a broadfaced, chubby little fellow, who grinned 
at him good-naturedly. 

“The work is fine,” said the stranger, “but 
the stealing’s mean. To-day I have carried 
six stones and all I have left is the one I brought 
just now. Oh, well,” he sighed, 111 just do 
as the rest do.” 

“What’s that?” asked Mannie. 

“Watch and see.” 

Mannie did watch. The stranger stood 
up straight in his home and seemed to be fast 
asleep with his nose under his right arm. But 
his eyes were not covered up. Very soon his 
sharp-eyed neighbor rose and went toddling 




66 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


down the hill. Then this wise fellow opened 
his eyes and began taking stones from his 
neighbor’s wall and adding them to his. 

“There,” he said after a time. “I think 
that makes my home complete.” 

“Did he take your stones?” asked Mannie. 

“Somebody did and I had to get them 
back,” grinned the other. “You see,” he said, 
“Our people have the habit of stealing stones to 
build their houses with, and if you didn’t steal 
at all you’d never have a house. I don’t like it. 
I hope some time our people will grow to re¬ 
spect the rights of one another just at the 
humans do.” 

Mannie went down the hill to his own vil¬ 
lage where he searched out the house with the 
three red stones and one white one next to the 
sea, and three white ones and one red one on 
the upper side. He found his mother and 
father there, with a good supper all spread. 

“Father,” he said that night, “these Adelie 
folks are right stupid. They keep stealing one 





ARRIVAL OF THE ADELIE PENGUINS 


67 


another’s rocks which they build houses with. 
Don’t you think that is very unkind and 
stupid?” 

His father only smiled wisely and said 
nothing. His mother said some time this fool¬ 
ish habit will change and told Mannie to have 
another fish biscuit. 







THE POLICEWOMAN 



'H, hah!” exclaimed Old 
Tramp Stormy Petrel, rub¬ 
bing his hands together, and 
nearly losing his balance as 
_ _ _ he lowered himself to the 

ground. “Just as I hoped it 
would be. Here, down by the river are half the 
young people of the village with no old folks 
to stop a fellow who wants to talk to them.” 

He had just reached ‘the ground by this 
time, and in a very few moments he walked up 
to the group of Penguin boys and made his 
very best bow. 

“How do you do?” he said smiling. 
“You’re a fine lot of young gentlemen.” The 
boys all blushed and twisted their hands awk¬ 


wardly behind their backs, but said nothing. 

“My name’s Petrel, Stormy Petrel,” said 
the old tramp, sitting down on a large rock 


68 



THE POLICEWOMAN 


69 


and crossed his feet. “I don’t suppose any 
of you know me. I know all your folks very 
well. I was over here a month ago. Had a 
fine time, too, I must say. Very clever folks, 
your people are.” Stormy spread his wings and 
tried to look his very best, but the boys still 
twisted their hands behind their backs and said 
nothing. 

“This is a fine day,” said Stormy, “the 
river’s fine, why don’t you take a swim?” 

“Our bathing-suits are not finished yet,” 
ventured Mannie Penguin, having lost his em¬ 
barrassment. “Mother says they won’t be done 
for three weeks.” 

“Well, now I call that too bad!” said 
Stormy, seeming to feel sorry for the boys, but 
in truth, feeling more sorry for himself, for if 
the fact were known, he had come back to Pen¬ 
guin Village to get a boy for a traveling com¬ 
panion, and it did not please him a bit to find 
that none of them had their bathing-suits 
finished. 




70 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



“Our Bathing Suits Are Not Finished Yet” Said Mannie 


Stormy shifted uneasily about on his seat. 
He saw he was in a bad business. Any tramp 
is in bad business when he is hunting up a boy 
to travel with him, and he knows it. Stormy 
knew it, too, and was nervous. “But I may as 
well make a good impression on them now,” 
he thought to himself, “then, when they get 
their bathing-suits it won’t be the least trouble 
in the world to get one of them to go right 
away.” At that he cast a dreamy spell over his 
visage and began; 








THE POLICEWOMAN 


71 


“The truth is, boys, I’m what’s known as a 
globe trotter.” He paused to allow the words 
to make an impression. It was evident that his 
listeners did not understand. “Well, you see,” 
he continued, “it’s like this, I travel all over the 
world. Doesn’t that sound interesting?” 
Didn’t you ever get to wondering what was just 
beyond the clouds you see all red at sunset? It 
is very strange! Well now, I’ve been there. 
And a great many other places I’ve been, too. 
When you look over at the red, red sun when it 
rises up out of the sea in the morning, don’t 
you ever wonder what is beyond the sunrise, 
and what it is? Well, I’ve been there. I’ve 
been almost everywhere. It’s great to travel, to 
go here, there, and everywhere over the earth!” 
The Penguin boys were listening now with all 
attention. What one of them had not looked 
away at the golden sunset or at the red sun¬ 
rise, and thought of the lands beyond it all? 

“And besides all that I’m an adventure^,” 
said Stormy. “I’ve done all sorts of daring 




72 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


things. I’ve robbed robbers in their dens. I’ve 
robbed Old Ivory Gull, the pirate, of his 
ill-gotten booty. Why!” he exclaimed, to further 
win his hearers, “There’s no one I’d be afraid 
of.” 

“Look out, mister!” cried one of the boys, 
“Here comes the police woman.” 

“Police woman!” cried Stormy, in a fright. 
“Where?” Then he suddenly thought of the 
great speech he had just been making to the 
boys, and sat down again to appear not afraid. 

Now, truly enough, a police woman was 
coming. The Penguin people are ever watch¬ 
ful of their children. Though most of them 
had gone fishing, they had left their children in 
the care of two police women. It was one of 
these who was coming just now. And a very 
strong person she looked to be, too. She was 
dressed in light yellow bloomers with a bright 
golden collar, a grayish-blue cape and a black 
hood. She came marching along with as much 
dignity as the Emperor himself. 




THE POLICEWOMAN 


73 


Poor Stormy! He was very small indeed, 
beside her, and his conscience did not add one 
bit to his courage, for as we can see, he real¬ 
ized that he was in a very bad business. But 
he put on his best face and waited for the police 
woman to come up. 

She looked him over from his head to where 
his toes were. Honest, you’d have been sorry 
for Stormy if he hadn’t just been up to such bad 
tricks, the way she looked at him. 

“What you doing here?” she demanded, 
moving very close to him. 

“I will explain,” said Stormy, twisting 
uncomfortably, “you see, I’m quite a traveler, 
and—” 

“I wouldn’t doubt it. You look as if you 
were,” said the watch woman wisely. “And I 
suppose you’d like to get some of these boys to 
travel with you?” 

That was such a good guess that Stormy 
had not a word to say. 




74 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



The police woman went up to him and 
took him by the collar. She set him on his 
feet with a jerk and marched him over two 
hills before she let him go. 

“Now!” she exclaimed, giving his ear a 
sound box, “You get out and don’t you come 
back.” And we may be sure that Stormy was 
glad enough to go. 

It would have been better for Mannie Pen¬ 
guin if Stormy had obeyed her orders and 
stayed away, but he didn’t. 













THE POLICEWOMAN 


75 


That night, in his own home, Mannie was 
thin k i n g of the strange tales of this wanderer. 
“How fine it would be to go way out beyond 
the sunset and way over beyond the sunrise,” he 
thought to himself. He sat there, and thought 
and thought and thought till his mother told 
him to go wash his feet and be off to bed. 



Sheath Bill 





SHEATHBILL, THE ROBBER 



HE morning after Old 
Tramp Stormy Petrel had 
told the Penguin boys about 
his wonderful travels, Man- 
nie Penguin stole out of bed 
very early and went out to 
watch the sun come up over the hills. His 
father and mother were out for their morning 
swim, so no one missed him. What a glorious 
morning it was! The mosses all sparkling with 
the morning mist, the white hill peaks just turn¬ 
ing to red fire brands under the red glow of the 
morning sun, and the sun himself just coming 
over the hill, a great jolly giant! 

“He said he’d been way over beyond where 
the sun rose,” said Mannie to himself. “That 


must be grand!” He stood for a moment and 
thought. 

“I think I’ll just go to the top of that hill 


76 




SHEATHBILL THE ROBBER 


77 


over there,” he said. “Perhaps I can see how 
far it is beyond the sun, and by and by, when I 
am bigger, I’ll go right over there all the way.” 

He straightened up and marched along 
very dignified in his first trip away from the vil¬ 
lage. This went very well half way up the hill, 
but when he came to a place where the side of 
the hill seemed to cave in, and he was obliged 
to go down hill to get higher up, he tumbled 
awkwardly on his stomach and went toboggan¬ 
ing down to the bottom if the hollow. Then 
up he rose again and waddled on his way. 

“It didn’t seem such a long way just to the 
top of that hill,” he mumbled as he trudged 
along. “I believe I am growing hungry al¬ 
ready.” But he was a persistent little fellow, and 
went trudging on till he came to another place 
to slide down, then down he went only to find a 
third place to climb. Whew! how tired his feet 
were by the time he reached the top of this hill! 
But when he came to the very crest he was no 
more able to see over the top than he had been 




78 THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



What a Glorious Morning It Was 


before. Right before him towered a great wall 
straight up and down. So steep it was that he 
could neither climb up it, nor if he were able to 
do this would he have dared to toboggan down 
it. What was still worse, the red giant face of the 
sun had disappeared altogether, and the wind 
whistled round the rock dismally. 

“How cold it is up here,” Mannie shivered. 

But not to be beaten even at this, he started 
going along the edge of the cliff. “Surely 











SHEATHBILL THE ROBBER 


79 


there’s a door through somewhere,” he said to 
himself, “or Stormy Petrel could never have 
gone round behind the wall to the place beyond 
the sun.” So he plodded on and on, his feet 
growing more tired and getting hungrier at 
every stride. But, at last he came to a door 
right into the rock. But it had such a high 
door-sill that Mannie could not climb over it, 
try as he might. Three times he tried it, and 
at last slipped and slid a long way down the 
hill. But he was plucky and climbed all the 
way back again. 

“There’s a little ridge over there,” he said, 
“I believe I can see over the door-sill and can 
tell what is beyond if I climb up there.” Up 
he climbed, and then turned to look. He 
nearly fell over backward for fright at what he 
saw! But he steadied himself and looked 
again, and by this time he was so surprised that 
he could not have moved from the spot. 

The door led into a broad hallway. It 
was a very wide door, and you could see about 




80 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


.all there was in the hall. It was the home of 
old robber Sheathbill! There was the bed he 
slept on, and there were his two white eggs. 
But the bad thing about his house was his bed. 
It was all made of the bones and skulls of little 
Penguin folks! He had discovered a real rob¬ 
ber’s den, and here he was just a little fellow 
and all alone 1 What should he do? 

It was evident that he was not going to see 
the land beyond the sun this morning, even if 
it was only from the distant top of a hill. He 
had just come to this conclusion and was about 
to climb down from the little ridge and make 
for home as fast as his feet would carry him, 
when all at once he felt a cold shiver run down 
his back. A hoarse voice came over the next 
ridge. What an angry voice it was! He looked 
and there, looking at him with a wicked grin 
was the robber himself, not twenty feet away! 

Mannie didn’t want to seem a bit scared, 
so he turned and walked down the hill with 
all the dignity he could command. But it 




SHEATHBILL THE ROBBER 


81 


wasn’t much dignity after all, for his hands 
were shaking and his knees were trembling 
and he could feel the robber’s eyes staring right 
down the middle of his back. 

The old robber must have known this for 
in just a moment he charged right at Mannie, 
and if Mannie had not made a misstep and be¬ 
gun to slide, I am afraid the story would have 
ended right here, and the old robber would 
have had more bones to add to his nest. But 
Mannie began to slide, he tried to hold him¬ 
self but he couldn’t, so down, down he went, 
sometimes head over heels, and sometimes back 
side first, and sometimes on his nose, but always 
tumbling and sliding, ziz, ziz, ziz—how he did 
go! The old robber followed him for a dis¬ 
tance, but it wasn’t a bit of use. Mannie was 
traveling far too fast for him! He wasn’t able 
to catch Mannie at all. So he turned back hop¬ 
ing to catch Mannie another time. 

“Ug! Gup!” All of a sudden Mannie 
tumbled right into something. That something 







-■■■■■ ■ 


-- 


-—-I 


— 


■ ■ ■ ■ — 


- ■ .. 




- ■— 


Mannie Did Not 


Want to Seem a Bit Scared 


82 






















































SHEATHBILL THE ROBBER 


83 


happened to be the stomach of an Emperor 
Penguin. I forgot to tell you that not only 
Mannie’s father was called Emperor, but all of 
Mannie’s folks, both men and women. 

“Excuse me,” said Mannie. But the Em v 
peror was far too much out of wind to say any¬ 
thing, so Mannie hurried to join a group of 
boys and lost himself from the Emperor’s sight. 
“He might be a bit angry when he get’s his 
breath,” he thought to himself. “But I wonder 
how I got to our village by sliding straight 
down the hill? When I climbed up the hill 
I went over two ridges to reach the top.” 

But he was too hungry to bother his head 
about that very long. His breakfast must be 
cold by this time. He would hurry right over 
to that house with three red stones on one side, 
and three white stones and a red on the other. 
But where was it, which way should he go? 
He decided to go right through the town and 
look both ways. This did no good. “I’ll just 






84 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


have to go up one street and down another till 
I come to it,” he said to himself. This would 
take a long time, but there was nothing else for 
it. He was sorry he had ever ventured forth to 
find the land beyond the sun. But up this street 
and down that one he tramped, thinking every 
moment he would come to his own home. Up 
and down, up and down, till his feet hurt more 
than ever, but at last he came out at the other 
edge of the town and never a look at his own 
home had he had. 

“What am I to do?” he asked himself, “I’m 
very hungry and,—” Just then he caught sight 
of a Mrs. Penguin coming from fishing, with 
a splendid fish in her basket. “I believe that 
is my own mother!” he exclaimed, and went 
toddling after her asking for his breakfast. 
But was it his mother? It is very easy to think 
most any good woman is your mother in Pen¬ 
guin Land when you are very hungry. 





TO CATCH SHEATHBILL 



* OTHER, mother, I’m hun¬ 
gry. GiVe me my breakfast,” 
cried Mannie Penguin, as he 
ran after the large Mrs. Pen¬ 
guin with the fish in her 
basket. 

“You run away, little fellow, I’m not your 
mother,” smiled the large Mrs. Penguin. 

But Mannie did not run away; he followed 
right on her heels and kept crying, “Give me 
my breakfast. I am your child. I am Mannie 
Penguin. Give me my breakfast.” 

But the lady only laughed loud and long, 
and called back at him, “Go hunt your own 
mother. I am not your mother.” 

But Mannie was too hungry to go hunting 
anyone else. Was not here a fine mother with 
a large fish? And did she not look like the 


85 


86 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



Was Not Here a Fine Mother With a Large Fish? 


mother who had always fed him? Why, then, 
should he run away to hunt some mother who, 
perhaps, had no fish after all? So on and on 
he ran, chasing the lady with the basket faster 
and faster until she began to puff and puff, and 
was soon quite out of wind. 

“Give me my breakfast,” said Mannie, 
coming up very close. 

Now it is true that all Penguin people 
are very near-sighted, and when Mrs. Pen¬ 
guin sat down to rest she took a better look 
at Mannie. “Why!” she exclaimed, “if you 
don’t look for all the world like my little son. 








THE CATCH SHEATHBILL 


87 


I am so near-sighted that I really can’t tell! So 
here is the fish even though you are not my 
son!” 

Mannie ate the fish with great relish. But 
when this particluar Mrs. Penguin returned to 
her home she found a hungry child waiting for 
her, and knew she had fed someone else’s boy. 

But when Mannie had eaten his breakfast 
and wandered back to the village to continue 
his search for the house with three red stones 
on one side and three white stones on the other, 
he at last sat down by the side of the street and 
began thinking of his adventure of the morn¬ 
ing, of his narrow escape from old robber 
Sheathbill. It all seemed so real to him now that 
he began to bug his eyes out in fright at the 
thought of so.narrow an escape. 

“Hello, and what are you bugging your 
eyes out so about?” asked a policeman who 
came along just then. 

Mannie was startled at the policeman’s 
question, but decided to tell the truth. 

“Why,” he said, wiggling his arms and 




88 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


feeling very nervous, “I was just thinking of 
something I saw up on the hill this morning.” 

“And what was that?” asked the police¬ 
man resting his club on his knee. 

“It wasn’t much of anything,” said Mannie 
modestly, “ I just saw a robber’s den with some 
bones of little Penguin folks in it, and a great 
many eggshells, and by and by the robber, old 
Sheathbill came along and chased me. I 
slipped and came sliding down here, that’s all.” 

“What’s that?” asked the policeman’s son, 
who was standing near him. “What’s that, you 
saw a robber’s den and the robber chased you?” 

“What’s that?” demanded a short chubby 
little Adelie Penguin before Mannie had had 
time to reply. “You saw a robber’s den and 
the robber, old Sheathbill, chased you?” 

“What’s that?” called a short boy, in knee 
pants, the Adelie Penguin’s son, “you saw a 
robber and he chased you?” 

So many of them asking him questions all 
at once confused Mannie so very much that he 




THE CATCH SHEATHBILL 


89 


could not answer any of them. And all the 
time, more and more people were gathering 
around him and all talking at once. They 
asked questions of one another and of him, and 
made such a hub-bub that in just a few 
moments the whole town was talking about it. 
Grown people and children were calling at 
the top of their voices. He could hardly have 
created a greater excitement if he had an¬ 
nounced that the whole town was to be attacked 
by a great band of robbers at the very next 
moment. 

But it was not much to be wondered about 
that his discovery had created such a com¬ 
motion, for this very robber had done great 
damage to this very village. Many a Penguin 
mother was childless because her egg had been 
stolen by this bold fellow, and those bones in 
his nest were the bones of children stolen from 
this very village. 

Mannie was led away by the Policeman to 
the Emperor, and in just an hour the whole 




90 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


village was preparing to go to the top of the hill 
and destroy this bold robber and his home. 

A very bold and imposing company they 
made, too, as they marched along all in good 
order. First, there were the Policemen, and 
then the Emperors, then the wives of police¬ 
men and emperors, then all the children of this 
part of the village. After these came the hun¬ 
dreds and hundreds of dutchy little Adelie Pen¬ 
guins, followed by their wives and children. 
Of course, it was not expected that these little 
people would do much fighting, but they would 
come in handy if it was necessary to lay siege 
to the place, for they could dig trenches and 
build stone walls. 

“We’ll catch him!” shouted the Policemen. 
“We’ll catch him!” answered the emperors. 
“We’ll catch him!” echoed the chubby little 
Adelie Penguins. “We will, we will!” shouted 
all the women and children in a chorus, and so 
they marched along with Mannie in the front 
row showing them the way. 




INTO THE ROBBER’S DEN 


OU couldn’t keep an army ot 
Penguins quiet if they were 
stealing upon a fortress in 
the dead of the night. Up 
the hill they marched sing¬ 
ing, shouting and singing 
again, making enough noise 
to frighten a lot of robbers. And always march¬ 
ing along in front, making as much noise as the 
rest, was Mannie, feeling very keenly his im¬ 
portance as guide to the whole party. 

At last they reached the top of the hill, 
and Mannie pointed out to them the hole in 
the wall and the high doorstep in front. 

“Now,” said the policeman very bravely, 
“we will all march up close to the door. Then 
I will go up and knock. If he answers, I will 
call upon him to come out and fight. If he 
does not answer, I’ll climb over his high door- 



91 


92 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


sill and go right in. But you must be all ready 
to follow me and back me up. There might 
be a whole band of robbers in the cave.” 

“We’ll follow you,” shouted the other 
policemen. “We’ll come right after you,” 
shouted the short dutchy Adelie Penguins; 
“We’ll be right there,” shouted all the women 
and children in a chorus, as they moved close 
up to the doorstep in solid ranks. 

Rap, rap, rap! went the policeman’s club 
on the door-sill, but there came no answer. 
Rap, rap, rap! it went louder than before, but 
still no answer. RAP, RAP, RAP! louder 
than ever, but still no answer. 

“I’ll have to go in and bring him out,” 
whispered back the policeman. “Be ready!” 

“All right. All right,” whispered the 
others in one breath. 

The policeman made a sudden rush and 
started over the sill. Just when he was about to 
tumble over inside his foot slipped and back 
he came tumbling head over heels, and right 




INTO THE ROBBER’S DEN 


93 


into the crowd he rolled knocking them down 
like so many ten-pins. In a moment all was 
confusion and the Penguin army was toboggan¬ 
ing head over heels to the bottom. 

“Halt! Halt!” shouted the policeman, who 
had gotten on his feet at last. You’re a foolish 
army I must say!” he exclaimed, as they turned 
about and clambered back upon their feet as 
best they could. 

“Did you see him?” exclaimed the other 
policemen. “Did he attack you?” asked the 
chubby Adelie Penguin. “How did he look? 
How did he look?” called all the women and 
children in a chorus. 

But the policeman was too much annoyed 
to answer any of their questions. He just or¬ 
dered them all back up the hill again. And 
soon he was ready to try climbing over the 
door-sill once more. But again he slipped, and 
again sent Penguins spinning in every direction. 
But this time they were much braver and held 







94 



































































INTO THE ROBBER’S DEN 


95 


their ground. A third time he attempted it 
and again went rolling. 

“Foolish!” exclaimed a chubby little Ad- 
elie Penguin. “Where did you see the den?” 
He turned to Mannie. Now! it is true that 
though the Adelie Penguins are very short 
and much smaller than the Emperor, yet there 
are no braver little people in the world, and 
none so impatient of delay. 

“Right over there on that ridge,” Mannie 
shivered a bit at the thought of his experience. 
“You can see right into the deh from there.” 

He had hardly finished speaking when the 
chubby fellow was stomping stolidly up the 
ridge and that without orders from the big 
policeman. 

“Here! Come back there!” shouted the 
policeman. But the little fellow never stopped; 
right up the ridge he went, and if he had been 
charging right into the cannon’s mouth I doubt 
if he would have hesitated a moment. 

Right to the top of the ridge he marched. 




96 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


Then up on his feet he stood, and in a moment 
began to wave his arms and speak. But no one 
understood what he said, for he had hardly 
opened his mouth when up flew his feet and 
down he went ker-flop, and like an arrow he 
shot right down the ridge. But he didn’t go the 
way Mannie went. He shot right down toward 
the robber’s den! He struck the door-sill with 
a flop and a bounce! Right over into the den 
he tumbled! 

Then what a shouting and screaming there 
was! “The robber will hurt him!” shouted all 
the Penguins. But ten other Adelie Penguins, 
in spite of the danger, began stolidly climbing 
the ridge. And in just a moment, bravely, 
without a tremble, they threw their feet in the 
air, and went tumbling all ten right into the 
robber’s den just as their companion had done. 
How the other Adelie Penguins cheered. But, 
the Emperor policemen, not to be outdone, 
marched up the hill and took the slide too. 
And in just a few moments there were so many 




INTO THE ROBBER’S DEN 


97 


people in the robber’s den that they could 
hardly turn about. 

And what do you suppose they found? 
Nobody home! Nobody home at all for the 
old robber had heard them coming up the hill 
and had made his safe escape. But there was 
his bad bed made of little Penguin bones and 
egg-shells. They took his bed and his own 
eggs as well, and they buried the bones of the 
little Penguins, then they marched in triumph 
down the hill. 

It had been a great day in Penguin Land, 
even though they had not captured old robber 
Sheathbill, their ancient enemy. Let us hope 
that they may be more successful in the future, 
for he is really a very bold, bad fellow. 




THE STRANGE MOTHERS 


H my! I want my mother, I do!” called 



w Mannie Penguin, standing first on one 
foot and then on the other, and at last toppling 
over in a heap on the ice. 

It’s all right for little folks to be wandering 
about all by themselves when the sun is shining 
brightly. They feel safe enough then and quite 
happy, but when the long shadows begin to 
stretch and stretch and stretch across the ice, and 
it’s getting dark, dark, dark, then they begin to 
think of their mothers, if they have any, and 
Mannie had one. He knew he did. If he only 
could find her. 

“Here, I’ll be your mother,” whispered a 
big motherly Penguin. Mannie looked at her 
and didn’t say anything. He didn’t really 
know whether she was his mother. He only 
knew that her house did not have three red 
stones on the lower side, and three white ones 


98 


THE STRANGE MOTHERS 99 



“There, I’ll Be Your Mother/’ Whispered, a Big Motherly Penguin 


on the upper side. He was very much be¬ 
wildered, and so unhappy! Where could that 
house be anyway? He had hunted all morn¬ 
ing for it when the sun was shining brightly. 
What could be the use of looking for it now? 

He didn’t have long to think of it, for the 
motherly Penguin seized him and dragged him 
up under her warm gown with his feet on top 
of her broad feet. It did feel good to be off 
from the cold, cold ice, and he was half in mind 













100 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


to sit right still and go to sleep, just as he always 
had done with his really-truly mother. 

But he was not allowed to do that, for 
the moment the other childless Penguins saw 
what had happened there was an-uproar. We 
know that the old robber had stolen many 
eggs from this Penguin town, and had caught 
some of the little folks that lived there, so that 
there were very many childless mothers. And 
there are no more motherly people in the world 
than these very Penguin women. If they have 
no child of their own they are altogether too 
willing to take some other person’s child to 
nurse. That was just where the trouble arose 
and things indeed went very bad for Mannie. 

“You can’t have him, you give him to me,” 
said one motherly old dame. 

“I won’t, he’s mine,” said the one which 
was holding him, poking her nose at the other. 
That was a sign for battle, and in a moment 
Mannie found himself tumbled out on the ice. 




THE STRANGE MOTHERS 


101 


while the two dames went at one another flipper 
and beak in a very savage fashion. 

“Come here, I’ll take care of you,” whis¬ 
pered a third dame, pushing Mannie before her 
out of the fray. Mannie did not know that 
this arrangement would only get him into 
further trouble, as he was very young and 
could not be expected to reason that out. 

When the other Mother Penguins saw this 
they were upon the third dame in a trice. And 
so it went on until there were no less than 
fifteen trying to win the care of Mannie. A 
dame would stand up straight and swing her 
arm for a blow, when someone behind her 
would strike her over the head, and down she 
would tumble. It was indeed one of the 
strangest thing that ever happened in a peace¬ 
ful Penguin village. Mannie, as soon as he 
could, ran away from all those fighting birds 
to escape being torn almost to pieces by their 
loving embraces. 

“Where am I, and where shall I go?” cried 




102 THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



And in a Moment Mannie Found Himself Tumbled on the Ice 


the poor little fellow, as he came out into the 
dark. “I want my mother, I do!” 

Well, it was very cold so he had to keep 
moving to keep himself warm. He went away 
and away from the village, over one little hill 
and another little hill, and good enough! He 
came to another Penguin town. And as he 
looked closely, it seemed to him that it looked 
very much more like the town in which he was 
born than the one he had just left. He began 
wandering up the streets in the moonlight, and 
joy of joys! He came right to the house where 


























THE STRANGE MOTHERS 


103 



there were three little red stones on the lower 
side and three little white ones on the upper side, 
and there sleeping all alone was someone whom 
he knew was his very own mother! He just 
crept right into bed without waking her up and 
was fast asleep in a jiffy. 

Next morning he had many strange things 
to tell the people of his own town; the find¬ 
ing of the robber’s den, and the strange Pen¬ 
guin town, and all about the finding on the 
robber’s den, and all about how he had been 
treated by the mother Penguins in that strange 


town. 

















































































104 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


The mothers of his own village were very 
indignant to think that any child should be 
treated as he had been by the dames of that 
other town, and were for going right over and 
punishing them good. But when they went 
to the Emperor to see what he thought about 
it, he said; 

“They did just what you would have done 
in the same circumstances! They acted just as 
Penguin women always do! You’d better all 
run home and forget about it!” 

They didn’t thank him for this advice, but 
after all, they saw the wisdom of it, so they 
went waddling off each one to her own home, 
leaving Mannie to get over his hurts as best 
he might, and his mother to mend his clothes. 
But you may be sure it was some time before 
Mannie went over the hills again to see what 
the land was like beyond the sun. 




THE SEA LEOPARD 


LL the bright, golden snow¬ 
flakes which flew to the sky 
and stayed twinkling there 
all night had faded away, and 
it was morning again. 

“A very bright morning, 
very bright indeed!” said Mannie Penguin, 
tightening the string to his bathing suit. Man¬ 
nie was very happy, and well he might be, for at 
last his bathing suit was finished, and his mother 
had said he might try it out that very day, so he 
gave a hop and a skip and turned a back somer¬ 
sault, as he tobogganed down a slippery hill. 

But Mannie wasn’t quite as happy as he 
would have been if he had not tried going away 
from home all by himself before. He didn’t 
feel quite certain about things, but when he 
caught sight of the water, all blue and white 



105 



106 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


in the morning light, and touched with gold here 
and there, he could not resist running right to it, 
and plunging in without one care. Then 
away he went diving, dipping, swimming to 
his heart’s content. There’s nothing the Pen¬ 
guin folks like better than swimming. They 
cannot fly, so they can go faster through the 
water than any other way. Mannie did not have 
to learn. He just knew how, that was all, and I 
am quite sure he never stopped one second to 
question how he came by all this good fortune. 
For I am sure we could not help counting it a 
very good fortune, after all the times we have 
gotten water into our eyes and ears and noses 
trying to learn. 

Here and there Mannie came upon other 
young Penguin people swimming about in the 
water. They were all young folks like Mannie. 
The older folks were having new bathing suits 
made. Their old ones were old and ragged, so 
there was nothing for them to do but mope 
about home until the new ones were finished. 




THE SEA LEOPARD 


107 


Mannie felt sorry for them when he thought 
about it, but he was mostly too much taken up 
with his own joy at being able to swim to think 
much about it. Anyway, he paddled away and 
away, and very soon he found himself quite far 
from anyone, over among some great icebergs 
which floated about in the water, a great many 
more of them being under the water than on 
top. Mannie liked them, they seemed so huge 
and good-natured, and so silent. The sun 
shone on their sides, and painted one side pale 
yellow, while the other side was left deep 
purple shadows where there might be almost 
anything hidden, but where there was probably 
just nothing at all. 

Mannie was fancying all sorts of things 
about these great bergs, when all of a sudden he 
heard a swish, swish in the water. He looked 
about quickly, and something told him that 
the person he saw was a very dangerous fellow. 
That something was an instinct, I think, for 
hundreds of years the Penguin folks have been 




108 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


afraid of Mr. Sea Leopard. He has been one 
of their worst enemies. And just now he was 
coming right at Mannie, his rows and rows of 
sharp teeth gleaming wickedly in the sun. 

“Save me! Save me!” called Mannie to the 
great icebergs. 

But the icebergs were as silent as ever and 
seemed to offer no assistance at all. They 
seemed farther away, too, and Mannie felt he 
could never reach one before the monster 
would swallow him up. He must try though, 
so bravely he struck out. 

Swish, swish went old Sea Leopard’s 
paddles in the water. Never was there a land 
leopard in the world more dangerous than he. 
Never did little young Penguin swim more 
bravely than Mannie. But he could see that it 
was not going to be a bit of use to try to reach 
the friendly old bergs for, swim as he might, 
they semed to go back farther and farther in 
the distance. Closer and closer came the leop¬ 
ard. Now Mannie could hear his hoarse gurgle 




THE SEA LEOPARD 


109 


as he swam. But suddenly a little cake of ice 
appeared in the water. It wasn’t more than 
ten feet square and not thick above the water 
at all. 

“If I can only reach that!” panted Mannie, 
as he put forth all his effort. And just before 
the leopard reached him he climbed panting 
onto the ice and was safe. 

“Why, hello!” said a voice right beside 
him. He nearly fell into the sea again. 

“Why, why,” he stammered, “it’s Stormy 
Petrel.” 

“Yes, that’s who it is,” said the other, mov¬ 
ing along on the cake of ice. “That was a 
narrow escape. Why didn’t you fly?” 

“Our folks don’t fly,” said Mannie sorrow¬ 
fully, at the same time wondering how he was 
going to get back to land and to his home. 

“Well, now, I call that too bad,” said 
Stormy, sympathetically. He spoke twice for 
himself and once for Mannie, for he had hoped 
very much that here at last was the very boy 





■ ' 


•• 




■ . . 


— 












ii i ii mi l- 


t(Jr//Amu Ulft< 




Wmz% 


And Just Before the Leopard Reached Him He Climbed Panting Onto the Ice 

110 
































































































































THE SEA LEOPARD_111 

he wanted for a traveling companion. But if 
he couldn’t fly, why what use could he be to 
him? So Stormy stood on one foot dejectedly, 
and leaned against a little pile of ice, looking 
for all the world as if he had lost his last friend, 
while Manny thought and thought how he was 
ever going to get back to land and away from 
this terrible water which had seemed so grand 
to him but an hour before. 






OLD GIANT WHALE 



HE little cake of ice rocked 
slowly up and down with the 
wash of little waves. Up and 
down it rocked, up and 
down, and Mannie had al¬ 
most been rocked to sleep 


when Stormy Petrel moved over close to him. 

“I wish,” said Stormy, “that you could only 
fly so that I could show you a gay time.” With 
that he nudged Mannie in the ribs and grinned 
gleefully, as any care-free tramp might. 

Mannie didn’t like being nudged. He 
wasn’t used to it. When Stormy said something 
else and nudged him again, he felt himself 
growing a bit angry. 

“I don’t like being nudged!” exclaimed 
Mannie, as he nudged Stormy in return so 
violently that Stormy quite lost his balance 
and went sprawling on the ice, for it is told 


112 


THE SEA LEOPARD 


113 



that there is no one in the world who is 
quite so good at that game of nudging as the 
Penguin people. Even Husky, the malamute 
dog, and the Geography man knew this to their 
sorrow. 

“Beg your pardon, I didn’t mean,—” Man- 
nie began. 

“You did it on purpose,” growled Stormy, 
getting on his feet as best he could. But he 
had hardly managed this before he and Mannie 
both went sprawling. You might have thought 
there had been' an earthquake if it had been 
on land. Such a shaking up as they received! 








114 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


You might have guessed it was a giant wave 
that did it, if there had been a cloud in the sky 
but there was not. 

“What did that?” Mannie asked, rubbing 
his knees and struggling to rise. But he was 
no more than half way on his feet than there 
came another shock and he almost tumbled 
into the sea. 

“Be careful!” screamed Stormy. “That’s 
Old Giant Killer Whale. He’s trying to shake 
us off this cake of ice, and if he does he’ll eat 
us in a second’s time!” 

“Old Giant Killer Whale!” Had not 
Mannie heard of this great monster? Hadn’t 
stories of his cruelty been often told in Penguin 
Town? Where was there anyone more to be 
feared? Would any danger on land drive one 
of his family to sea when they thought Killer 
Whale was about? And yet, here he was on a 
small cake of ice far, far from land and Killer 
Whale was coming up beneath the cake and 
trying to tumble him into the sea. 




OLD GIANT WHALE 


115 


He didn’t have long to think about it, for 
in just a second there came another shock, and 
down he went. Stormy had managed to get on 
his feet and spread his wings. Away he sailed 
high in the air, from which safe distance he 
shouted encouragement to his young compan¬ 
ion. What a terrible experience it was! Now 
Mannie was on his feet and gaining in the 
hope that the monster was gone, but just then 
down he would go. Now he was standing on 
his head with the cake of ice standing on its 
edge in the water. Now he was on his back 
looking up into the blue sky where Stormy 
soars aloft. Now he was rolling over and over, 
and frantically waving his feet to get some hold 
on the slippery ice surface. It surely looked 
as if Mannie Penguin would be among the 
missing children of his little village, and that 
his family and friends would go back to their 
winter home mourning this happy little mem¬ 
ber of their family. 




116 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


But suddenly, as he scrambled to his feet, 
Mannie discovered that one of the great friendly 
icebergs which had seemed so far away, now was 
quite close, very close indeed! The little waves 
had pushed his cake of ice closer and closer until 
it was hardly any distance at all. If he only could 
stay on the cake of ice a little longer, he might 
make a bold dash and be safe! So with good 
courage, he took the next tumble and held him¬ 
self as near the center of the cake as possible. 
Now, in just a few moments he would come 
bumping against the iceberg and he would 
be safe. Now he could hear the wash of the 
waves against the berg. And now it seemed 
that he could almost touch it. But suddenly, 
as if realizing that he was about to lose his 
dinner, the great whale gave a terrible bump, 
and the little cake of ice split in two. Over 
tumbled Mannie into the dark waters almost 
within grasp of the cruel monster. 

“Look out!” shouted Stormy, hovering 


near. 





OLD GIANT WHALE 


117 


Mannie did act quickly. He gave three 
masterly strokes, and in just a second he was 
scrambling up the side of the iceberg, just as 
Killer Whale went ker-whack against it. Let 
us hope he hurt his nose and broke out half 
his cruel teeth. Anyway, Mannie was safe 
for the time, and he stopped to catch his breath 
and to look at the beautiful blue of the iceberg. 
No, it didn’t make much difference to him 
whether this temporary home was all ice or 
not, for he had a warm bathing-suit and he was 
very chubby and fat, so he could stand the 
cold. And there never was a Killer Whale 
in the world who could even make this splendid 
berg so much as tremble. Yes, Mannie was 
safe for now, but there was no food to eat, and 
it was a long dangerous way home over the 
sea. Perhaps, too, the berg was drifting out 
to sea. What, after all, was to become of our 
young friend who was on his second adventure 
in the great wide world? 




SAFE AT HOME 


M ANNIE PENGUIN did not know when 
he would get back to land from that 
iceberg which was floating out and out to sea. 
So he hoped that he would not be caught by old 
Killer Whale, or Great White Gull, the fierce 
pirate, or by a Sea Leopard. He watched the 
shore fade and fade, and every hour he grew 
more restless. Every hour he paced up and 
down on the iceberg, and every now and then 
he would climb to a high point to see how far 
he really was from his own dear home and 
every time he grew more alarmed. He was 
getting really very far from home for a young 
fellow who was just trying out his first bathing- 
suit, and had only that very morning taken 
his first swim. So he paced up and down faster 
and faster, and looked at the shore more and 


118 


SAFE AT HOME 


119 


more anxiously. But, at the same time, he did 
not dare go into the water to paddle home, 
for might not Killer Whale be just hiding be¬ 
hind some ice-cake to get him? And would 
he not swallow him at one big gulp? No, no, 
that would never do! At the same time, one 
could never expect his people to come after 
him in a skin canoe for they never had any 
such things. What could he do? 

Well, by and by, the sun crept down to 
the very water’s edge, then went down, down 
till he could not be seen any more, and then the 
golden snow-flakes took their places in the sky 
and twinkled, twinkled ever so brightly. They 
did cheer Mannie just a little bit, but it grew 
cold, oh, so cold! Mannie wished he was home 
in his own little bed with the covers all tucked 
in about him. And he began to grow very 
hungry, for he had been so eager to try his 
first swim that he had not waited for his break- 




120 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



There Wasn't a Thing to Eat on the Iceberg 


fast. He had had no dinner and no supper, 
and here it was way late at night. There wasn’t 
a thing to eat on the iceberg, so what was he to 
do about that? 

Well, at last Mannie became more brave. 

“I might as well be caught at once by 
Killer Whale as to starve on this iceberg or be 
carried away to some strange land,” he said to 
himself, as he stumped stoutly up and down. 

“I just believe I am going to try to go 
home!” he exclaimed bravely, as he gathered in 
the corners of his bathing-suit and “splash” 
into the water he tumbled, and paddled bravely 
for shore. 







SAFE AT HOME 


121 


But it was a long, long way, and every now 
and again something black whisked along be¬ 
hind him, which he was sure must be a terrible 
Killer Whale; then again, something white 
and spotted like a Sea Leopard went swish, 
swish behind him, while great white things 
skimmed along overhead, and they were Great 
White Ivory Gull pirates, he knew. 

“I must keep going fast!” he breathed, 
looking over his shoulder, then holding his 
breath and paddling faster than ever. 

Finally, when Mannie came close to land 
he imagined that old robber Sheathbill was 
waiting to catch him and he was almost afraid 
to go right to land. He was afraid to stay in 
the sea, and afraid to go ashore! But as noth¬ 
ing came after him in the sea, and as he swam 
the shore, he discovered that what looked like 
robbers were only bits of snow shining in the 
moonlight. And so, after all, it must have been 




122 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 


that there was nothing in the sea that night 
but little black-pointed waves and little white- 
crested ones, which Mannie took for Killer 
Whale and Sea Leopard, and there was no one 
in the sky but some innocent white clouds, 
which had gone scurrying along and had 
seemed like terrible pirates. But then, we must 
remember, that Mannie was very young, and it 
was night and he was far from home. 

But at last he scrambled upon the shore 
and waddled home as fast as his legs could 
carry him. I don’t know for sure, but I think 
his mother was waiting for him with the lamp 
burning low, and that she set a cold bite out 
for him and rubbed his bruised knees with 
seal-oil ointment, and tucked him into bed at 
last, just as any loving mother should. Any¬ 
way, he found himself snugly tucked in bed 
when the sun shone again next morning. 




TO MIGRATE HOME 


ELL, son,” said Mannie Pen¬ 
guin’s father, the old Emper¬ 
or, after Mannie had had his 
breakfast, “now that you 
have tried twice going out to 
see the world for yourself, 
how do you like it?” His voice was kindly and 
not scolding a bit. 

“I don’t like it,” said Mannie, speaking 
frankly, just as a son of an emperor should 
always speak. 

“Well, then,” said his father, “supposing 
you don’t try it any more all by yourself. You 
must wait two weeks longer till all of our peo¬ 
ple have their bathing-suits done, then we will 
take a long journey to our home. Perhaps there 
won’t be much adventure about that, but when 
we are all in our winter quarters and the 
autumn work is done, then you and I shall go 



123 


124 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



What Do You Think of That? 


on many a long winter excursion. We can’t 
leave this Antartic land of ours as Stormy Petrel 
can, but there are a great many beautiful and 
wonderful things to see in this land of ours. 
There are God’s great moving pictures, the 
great ice-palaces, and many other things. What 
do you think of that?” 

“I think that’s wonderful!” exclaimed 
Mannie, turning a somersault in his delight. 

Well, one fine autumn day, about the first 
of April, in this strange land, all the lady Pen¬ 
guins packed their best hats in band-boxes and 
gave the boxes to their sons to carry, and all 
the emperors packed their suit-cases and car- 




TO MIGRATE HOME 


125 


ried them for themselves, and away they went 
marching toward the south, quite a stately pro¬ 
cession of them, and all feeling very good 
about the move, though I am sure Mannie 
and some of his comrades were sorry at leaving 
such a comfortable town. But then, they would 
all be coming back to it in the next spring, and 
meanwhile how about those long adventurous 
journeys which all emperors and their sons 
take in the long glorious winter time? So they 
trudged gladly along, after all, and none was 
more stately and proud than Mannie as he 
trudged along beside his wise and dignified 
father, the Emperor. 

In the distance, on a pinnacle of ice, sat 
a forlorn little figure. His chin was in his 
hand and his knees were crossed. He looked 
very much alone, indeed. It was old tramp, 
Stormy Petrel. He had no home and no family. 
There was no winter home for him and no 
summer home. He was a child of the wild sea 
wave. And he had known this little town of 




126 


THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 



“Ah! Well” Said Stormy to Himself 

people for a whole summer. He had thought 
about them a great deal, and who knows what 
he was thinking of now? 

But Stormy is a stout-hearted little wan¬ 
derer, so up he rose in the air in search of new 
fields when, joy of joys, he sighted a sail! It 
was the ship of the Geography man, who was 
going back to a land of real children of the 
human race. He was taking back a great 
many charts and maps and things to help their 
young minds with. 

“And now I’ll get to return to other seas 
in the wake of his boat!” exclaimed Stormy 
gleefully, as he speeded along. 

He was soon under the lea of the bark 
and eating happily from the rich repast spread 
out for him by the sailors, who were overjoyed 







TO MIGRATE HOME 


127 



at seeing him, for said they, “It foretells a safe 
journey home. We could never be wrecked 
by Mother Carey so long as he is with us, for 
what would become of her chicken?” 

“Ah! well,” said Stormy to himself, “I 
think there is a place in the world for all of 
us, though these slow-going, steady Penguin 
folks would hardly be willing to grant that 
there was any real place for me. Life in the 
town has its trials and so does life in the coun¬ 
try, and so does life on the stormy sea, but there 
is happiness for all of us if we seek it in right 
places, but the stormy sea for me!” 




128_THE STRANGELAND BIRD LIFE 

At that, the Geography man’s ship began 
to move away from the white Antartic land, 
and the land faded and faded from sight till 
there was nothing to be seen but the dark old 
ocean everywhere, and then the sailors and 
Stormy Petrel were happiest of all, for that 
was home to them. 




OW READ 

Roy J. Snell’s other books: 
—The Dinner That Was 
AIways There. 

—Little Boy France. 

—The Little Red Auto Pony. 


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